1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a resonant end-pin holder for musical instruments with end-pins. More particularly, this invention relates to a multi-mode adjustable-tonality end-pin holder and methods for enhancing and optimizing the tonal balance and sonic quality of end-pin equipped instruments.
2. Description of the Related Art
While hundreds of years have gone into the evolution of many instruments, a large degree of variability of tone is still prevalent within types of instruments. Some instruments will have a response that accentuates upper harmonics while attenuating its lower octaves, while others will have a response exactly opposite in those same frequencies. Most instruments will have an uneven response where problems cover a smaller range of frequencies. The smooth tonal balance found in the best instruments is created by an even distribution of resonances, which has yet to be reliably duplicated in modern instruments, even though great strides have been made in the science of materials, and, for instance, the science of violin building. The best instruments have an evenness of tone, and high price, that separates them from lesser instruments and most musicians. And while luthiers as a whole have many traditional and even some newer techniques for building the new and modifying the old, there is still a great disparity between the best and worst in terms of tonality.
To a musician, an instrument's tone is its most valuable feature, and great tone is seemingly at times a happenstance and serendipitous result of an assemblage of vibrating tubes, plates, membranes, strings and air chambers. These vibrations that result from the playing of an instrument travel freely throughout the instrument and thus naturally excite all of its parts, and these parts contribute resonate energy which is conducted through the body of the instrument to the radiating members. Every part of the instrument thus contributes to its overall sound, even when that part is not considered a sound radiator. In U.S. Pat. No. 5,929,353 a solid resonator ring is shown which is to be affixed to the mouthpiece of a saxophone or other reed instrument so that it is intimately in contact with the body of the instrument. This resonator ring is not a primary vibrator as are the reed and the air column of the instrument, and so must act like a feedback device which influences the instrument's tonality by adding its energy of resonance to the resonant energy of the vibrating reed and air column.
In the same way, an instrument's end-pin is in intimate contact with the body of the instrument and as such will contribute its resonant energy to the instrument's sound. This is one reason for the current experimentation with different and sometimes exotic materials used for end-pin construction. Also in the same way, an end-pin is usually in intimate contact with a stage floor, and an end-pin cannot be a one way street for vibrations. The resonant properties of the particles which make up the stage floor material upon which the end-pin sits, and is in intimate contact with, contribute energy which must also be carried up and back through the end-pin to become part of the energy radiated by the instrument itself, which in turn often adversely affects the tonality of the instrument. The end-pin of an instrument is thus more than just a prop to keep it off of the floor. It is also a two way conduit for energy; the stage floor and its resonant characteristics influence the sound of the instruments that by necessity of size and weight require use of an end-pin, such as but not limited to cellos, double basses, contrabassoons, and bass clarinets and other instruments that sometimes use an end-pin, such as bassoons and English horns. These instruments can have their tonality and playability improved by mechanically coupling a complimentary resonant body to the existing instrument. This complimentary resonant body will have to add resonant energy to those areas that are deficient in tonal strength while preserving the tonal balance of those areas already in balance.
A recent resonating device for the enhancement of an instrument's tonality is found in U.S. Pat. No. 5,920,020, where an air-chamber/enclosure large enough to provide seating for musician and instrument is excited by vibrations via the end-pin. In its background, the point is made that while some stage floors have sonic qualities that are musically relevant, most modern stage floors do not posses these qualities. Its design goal is to emulate the resonant qualities of a musical sounding stage floor. It resonates and enhances an instrument's lower registers, so as to achieve parity with the instrument's upper registers. It is a fixed-tonality device that for best effect should be matched to the particular instrument used with it. The size will restrict its use primarily for soloists because of space considerations, and unless carefully matched to its intended instrument, its inherent sonic bias in favor of lower tones could cause some dark sounding instruments to sound even further out of balance.
In U.S. Pat. No. 4,018,129 a resonating end-pin holder is designed to anchor and resonate sympathetically with the stringed instrument used with it, making the instrument louder. Its design emulates that of a stringed instrument with top and bottom resonating plates coupled together with a soundpost, with and without sides/air-chamber. It is also a fixed-tonality design whose construction was considered to be not as important as that of the instrument used with it. However, for it to be a truly complimentary resonant body, and thus more than just a volume control, it should be constructed and matched with the instrument used with it by a master craftsman, a time consuming and expensive process. When used with an instrument not matched with it, its fixed tonality could amplify and exacerbate tonal imbalances present in that particular instrument. As a major part of the design, compliant rubber feet are placed on the bottom plate to prevent slippage and to decouple the instrument from the floor. These feet will isolate and decouple the instrument from those stage floors which are musically resonant and thus can actually reduce the quality of sound that could be realized.
Traditional methods of making improvements to an instrument's tonality often require the replacement of parts and/or the disassembly or refinishing of the instrument. In the first case, owners of collectible instruments will usually not be eager to reduce the value of their instruments, especially since improved tonality cannot be guaranteed, and some parts like bows have become a realm of the collector where prices have become stratospheric. In the second, there is always a physical risk to the instrument involved when disassembly is required, and most traditional methods require steps that once taken, rarely if ever can be retraced to return the instrument to its previous sonics. In either case there is often an appreciable amount of time between the perception of the problem and its resolution. When disassembly is necessary, this period will often include months without the instrument.
For maximum effectiveness, a complementary resonant body will have to be either fabricated for one instrument only, and possibly for use during only one portion of the year as temperature and humidity changes will also change the tonality of that instrument, or its sonic attributes will have to be able to change along with the demands of the musical situation at hand. While resonant end-pin holders are known from the previous art, their tonalities are fixed at the point of construction. A field adjustable multi-mode tone-balancing end-pin holder with tonal characteristics that can be quickly adjusted by the musician and one that can be fine tuned for wide band and/or narrow band tonality problems in any part of that instrument's frequency range has no previous art. The need for a complementary resonant body with easily adjustable tonality is realized by the present invention